It's a Girl!

Some of you may have just wet your pants. Mostly those who are not in town. Dad...breathe deep...it's Julia's baby picture! This is my first of two girls. Julia has always been, 100% girl. Just how I would want a girl. I used to tease Mike and tell him that Anson would want to sit on the bench and read books with his mom instead of playing soccer. One day Mike shot back, "Yeah, well, what if Julia doesn't want to paint her nails?" Well, that just plain hurt. I'm serious! I apologized for always raining on his parade, and he apologized for raining on mine. Julia and I paint our nails. Anson...loves to read!!!

I was shocked when Julia was born. I had geared myself up for another boy. I think I didn't want to be sad if I didn't have a daughter. I couldn't believe it! I actually told the doctor to "SHUT-UP!" She is almost 4 now. Time flies when you are having fun...or does it?

I'm not sure who said it, but it was wise. Someone looked at me with that compassionate, envious look and said, "The days are long, but the years are short." How true that was. I say compassionate and envious because this was a veteran mother. She was, in her compassion, recalling the absolutely unbearable moments of motherhood. The days when there is only vomit and diarrhea. The days when a trip to the store is not optional...so the shower is! Then, once at the store a baby cries (so YOUR milk lets down) the toddler lays on the disgustingly dirty floor and SCREAMS proving you to be inept and then someone has to pee...RIGHT NOW! She was remembering, and was compassionate. The other emotion was jealousy. Her children no longer climb up onto her lap to read "just one more Clifford book." Her children don't argue over who got to sit by Daddy at the dinner table. Her children don't stare with wide eyed wonder when the sun slips down over the Gulf of Mexico. Her children were gone, her years were shorter than she had anticipated. Good, good, advice.

This all brings me to yesterday. Being that Julia is a girl, she LOVES to wear dresses. It doesn't matter what we are doing or where we are going she wants to wear a "beautiful dress." Yesterday it wasn't anything fancy. We have our weekly playgroup and yesterday we were going to Chick-fil-A where if you dressed like a cow you got free chicken. That, my friends, is a blog all its own!!! So, Julia pointed to her new dress from Mike's mom. "Mom, I don't want to save this until Sunday. I want to wear this dress today." Now, some of you may not be like this, but I know some of you who read this, your response would be the same, "Baby, let's save that one for Sunday." To which she responded, "Well, Mom, can I not just wear it today? Can you clean it before Sunday?" In that moment I thought, "Why the heck not?" Our playgroup friends are fabulous. Why should we just wear our playclothes? These people love us and have served us with great commitment. I said, "You know what, Jules, I sure can. I think you should wear this dress today." I don't want Julia to be like me. I do not want her to wait unti the perfect day to look pretty, or celebrate the ordinary.

"This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." How many times have you heard that verse? I use it when my children are grumpy or don't want to do what we have to do. Why not use it on the good day? Why not dress up. Choose the "beautiful dress." Make my hair nice. Maybe I could even put on some lipstick for crying out loud. I will not be leaving my house for a long time. Oh, I'll go out, but in our decision to keep the children home to be educated I could get a little comfie in my jammies. I could think, "It's not a big deal, I'm not going anywhere. I'm just here with the kids." Aren't they worth a little extra?

I feel like I'm rambling a bit...here's what I'm saying. I want to be more like Julia. I want to stop "saving" the pretty things. I want to treat each day as one to be celebrated. The friends that I spend time with are worth getting cleaned up for. Do I really rejoice in every day? Good, bad and indifferent?

This morning Julia came into our room first. She climbed up onto the bed to cuddle with Mike. I leaned over to her sweet Wessner ear (those who know me know a Wessner ear...you might have Wessner ears yourself...I LOVE THEM) and said, "Julia, do you think Mommy should get a new dress." She smiled and said, "Yes, and Mommy, I want one too." I could eat her up!!! So, after that I finished getting ready. Drying my hair...fixing it a little bit...and Mike used that opportunity to discuss the basics of the gospel. If you do not do this with your children...start. We go over why we need Jesus, how He took our sin, what the punishment was...we want to be the ones that lead our children across that line of faith...I'm sure you do as well. So, in this conversation Mike asked her how Jesus took her sin. She told him that He just took it out with His hands. I giggled a bit. I imagine at our conversion God just like, scooping our sin out with His gigantic hand. Here is a bit of their discussion. "How can God take the sin away if he's not even here?"
"Yes, He is, He's in my heart."
"How did he get in your heart?"
"He just walked in."
"If you died and went to heaven and God asked you why He should let you in, what would you say?"
"Because you love me." He was searching for, "Because I accepted Jesus as my Savior." Well, neither one of us can remember how she got to this comment, but I thought it was precious. She said, "I have heaven in my heart." No wonder she wants to dress up. No wonder she wants everyday to be like Sunday. A day where we pull out our best no matter where we are going. She has heaven in her heart. I think for those of us in Christ the same is true for us. If Christ dwells within us, don't we all have a little heaven in our heart?

I know some of you personally and know it is not within you to pull out a dress on a random rainy Thursday. I'm not saying dress up, necessarily. I'm saying stop saving the special. Pull out the fancy table cloth for your own family...for PIZZA! Go the extra mile when it will probably go unnoticed. Not so that God will love you more or that you'll get the "Mother of the Year" award. Do it because you've got a little heaven in your heart.